


Quiet on Deck

by sottovocexo



Category: Pirates of the Caribbean (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Falling In Love, Father-Daughter Relationship, Father-Son Relationship, Getting to Know Each Other, Grief/Mourning, Orphans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-12
Updated: 2018-10-12
Packaged: 2019-07-29 19:34:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16270907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sottovocexo/pseuds/sottovocexo
Summary: Continuing Henry and Carina's conversation aboard the ship in the middle of "Dead Men Tell No Tales" (2017) as they get to know one another, imagining this is when - and why - they fell in love.





	Quiet on Deck

Perhaps they were closer than she thought. Perhaps he understood more than she realized. Perhaps his eyes were warm, his smile kind.

Perhaps.

“What was it like?” Henry asked after some time had passed, after Carina peeled her eyes away and looked at the night. 

The sea made the only sounds. Carina glanced up at Henry. “Being an orphan or a woman in science?” she teased. 

He smiled and furrowed his brow. “You never knew your father?”

“No.” Carina looked down at his journal, counted her stars, none of them ever lucky. “Nor my mother. I’ve always been on my own. I’ve had to fend for myself, teach myself. I don’t mind it so much anymore. I didn’t have any friends. Any family. But I have them.” She pointed up at the sky. 

“You can’t enjoy that,” Henry said.

“It’s what I’ve always known. It’s gotten me here,” she said, looking up at him. 

“On a pirate ship?” he joked.

She smiled. “Better than the gallows.” 

“I don’t believe you ever thanked me, by the way,” he teased, taking a step closer. Looking at her like she was the brightest star in the north and he didn’t want to look away.

She didn’t want to argue. She didn’t want to joke. Not while she was so close to reading the map. While she stood so close to Henry. So she didn’t say anything at all.

Henry cleared his throat, wanted to step closer but instead took a step back. “You’re right...about what you said earlier. I can’t see him, but...I do know my father is there. But that might be the hardest part. Knowing he’s out there and...knowing still I can’t get to him.” He clenched the telescope tightly in his fist. 

Carina frowned. “I don’t even know if my father is alive… I don’t believe in ghosts," she joked, "but sometimes…” Carina dropped her voice low so even the stars could not hear. "It feels like I’m chasing one.”

Henry had a secret too. One he held so tightly that it felt like if he ever released it, it’d take part of him with it. “I’ve had my mum my whole life, and I know I should be grateful. I am fortunate,” he assured her, knowing her pain, “but I’ve…never truly known her. Not all of her. I only saw her whole one time…” On the beach, at sundown. The green light splitting the divide, striking her eyes. “That’s why I want to bring my father back. I have to.” He wished the waves could drown out his words. 

“We’ll get your father back, Henry,” she said, laying a hand on his shoulder. 

He cradled his necklace, the last piece of his dad. Of his family. “If I could, I’d bring your father back with him.”

Carina smiled, because he meant it. As if that’s all she needed to know. As if the hope of the memory could carry her through. “Thank you,” she said, meaning it too.

The stars had been the only thing she could count on. Before a boy believed her, risked his neck to release her from a noose and steer her toward her father’s treasure. He’d trusted her without a second thought when all others doubted her; trusted her when she’d only ever trusted herself. 

Lost in the way the moonlight swam in the blue of her eyes, Henry stepped back. “You must be exhausted. Why don’t you go? I can take over.”

“And leave this to a man?” Carina joked, clutching her journal to her chest. “You’d never be able to read it, remember?”

“But I’d sleep a whole lot better knowing you got some rest.”

Carina softened, slowly lowering her diary. “Well, then...good night, Mr. Turner.”

Henry smiled, warm as the sun. “Good night...Ms. Smyth.”


End file.
